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Written By: Chas Pippitt

At Baseball Rebellion, we’re always looking for the best way to prove improvement to our players and their parents both in person and online. One of the ways we’ve done this in the past was with Stalker 2 Radar ball exit speed testing. Some of the hardest hitting players in the country train here, at I.T.S. Baseball, a little facility in Hillsborough, NC about 25 minutes away from Raleigh Durham International Airport. More and more, Radar Gun Ball Exit Speed Testing has come under fire as many times the instructor must either hold the gun or set up a tripod with the gun on it at a very low angle. Many times, the hitter can hit a ground ball or a line drive that’s about 4 feet off the ground and right back at the gun in front of them to get their best readings. The higher and more to the side of the cage you hit the ball, the slower the Stalker 2 gun reads the speed of the ball, and many of those higher and more pulled/pushed oppo hits are actually doubles and home runs. Many “twitter coaches” aren’t too keen on Radar Gun testing due to this fact, and honestly…they have a point.

To combat this problem, I recently purchased aHitTraxmachine, which uses high speed cameras to track and analyze ball flight after impact. The HitTrax tells you ball exit speed, speed of the pitch, how far the ball will fly and how high you hit the ball (launch angle). So video analysis, like we do at Baseball Rebellion all the time, tells us about the player’s movements and now the HitTrax tells us tons about how the BALL reacted to impact of the bat. Knowing more data about ball flight was a missing piece of our hitting evaluation puzzle, which now that we have, it can tell us exactly how well a ball was really struck.

Mike Donfrancesco, the founder of HitTrax had this to say about our data logs:

“The data captured by the HitTrax System provides a quantitative and objective measurements of a players’ performance. Reports showing incoming pitch speed and outgoing exit velocity have an accuracy of +/- 1 mph RMS. The horizontal and vertical launch angle have been measured with an accuracy of +/- 1 degree RMS. Distance projections are calculated based on the exit velocity and vertical launch angle and has been found to be within +/- 5% of the actual distance traveled. The system at Rebellion Baseball was calibrated to within these specifications prior to capturing this data and the numbers and values within the charts and graphs have not been manipulated by Baseball Rebellion in any way.”

At Baseball Rebellion, the last thing we want to do is teach our players to hit ground balls and low line drive singles up the middle over and over. Baseball Rebellion hitters are GREEDY and want to do DAMAGE during their at bats, with extra base hits off and over the wall! That’s why many people, from all over the country, fly here for in person training and hire us foronline hitting lessons. One of those player’s Hittrax data will be used here to illustrate the awesome power of both the Hittrax and how changing movement totally changes the results and ceiling of a baseball or softball hitter.

This is “Eric” a player who has played a long time in professional baseball and multiple MLB seasons. Here are some of his numbers/HitTrax Data directly from the Hittrax reports, which the machine generates. Each of the 3 reports below were all taken from his hitting session on 2/10/2016 at 1:49 pm. The only modification on any of these reports is the removal of “Eric’s” real name. NOTE: if you don’t want to read all the charts yourself…scroll down below the three charts and watch the VIDEO where I explain what they all mean.

Now I realize that’s a lot of charts and stats all in a row, so click this short video below and i’ll explain what they mean quickly. You can go back and re-visit their main points if you’d like to compare and contrast his ‘after’ charts.

Man…that was a lot of data…I can feel myself getting dorkier already……..but I can also feel myself becoming a better hitting coach for my athletes. After seeing this data and realizing that Eric was hitting mostly singles, which severely limits his long term value to any club, we talked more about elevating the baseball and maintaining his velocity as the baseball was hit higher. Eric knew he had to not only hit the baseball higher, but HARDER as well, as his farthest balls were easily caught by outfielders. So…we went to work.

From about 2:00 to 4:10 or so, we did lots of movement work. SomeRebel’s RackResisted Turns, some Rebel’s Rack Accelerated Turns, as well as posture work with a dowel rod. I wrote a lot about a hitter’s posture and how certain posture mistakes can restrict a player’s turn quality and speed. (CLICK HERE to read part 1 of my hitting posture article, CLICK HERE to read part 2 of my hitting posture article). Now when I say we did these moves for 2 hours…I mean it. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of Rebel’s Rack and dowel moves in the mirror as well as with resistance. Also, we threw med balls into our med ball net. KC, our director of athletic performance, is writing an article about the rotational power improvement properties of specific medicine ball training for baseball and softball hitters next week, so look for it!

Below, you can see his new hitting charts, taken 2/10/16 at 4:44 PM. Again, there is a video explanation below if you’d like to just scroll to it.

Here’s a quick video talking about his improvement and what you need to know about his 2nd hitting session vs his 1st hitting session.

That’s quite the improvement in just roughly 2 hours of training with Baseball Rebellion’s movements and drills.

Average Ball Exit Speed: up from 84.9 to 92.4, UP 7.5 MPH

Maximum Ball Exit Speed: up from 96.1 to 100.8, UP 4.7 MPH

Maximum Distance Ball Flight: up from 325 to 381, UP 56 feet

Extra Base hits: up from 6 to 31, UP 25 Extra Base Hits

Hardest hit baseball: from first session would be 19th hardest hit ball from 2nd session

Ball Exit Speed at 30 Degree Launch Angle: up from 75mph to 88mph, UP 13 MPH

Ball Exit Speed Average & Maximum Speed: up at Every Zone in the Strike Zone

Obviously, “Eric” was very happy with those results and has continued his Baseball Rebellion training and swing mechanics into spring training. Leading to his best spring as a professional. I’m excited about his progress and career going forward, and he is as well.

None of this detailed hitting information is trackable without a HitTrax. Now that we have one at Baseball Rebellion, It’s already hard to imagine what doing in person lessons were like before we got one. There’s so much you can teach baseball / softball parents, players, and coaches about the VALUE of certain hits, that just hitting in a cage or even out on a field cannot do. I’ve only been using the HitTrax for about 2 months, but it has already been an absolute game changer for us as hitting instructors. Our professional and collegiate hitters love it, because we can chart their progress and show them that their Baseball Rebellion swing training is ACTUALLY working! We can also show young kids we know if they’re swinging ‘hard’ or not, which makes HitTrax a phenomenal ‘effort and performance evaluator’ said one of our parents of an 11 year old boy. In short, the HitTrax allows us to PROVE the IMPROVEMENT of our baseball and softball hitters while other instructors, here or anywhere in the World, that don’t use the HitTrax data, simply cannot.

Now, if you don’t have a HitTrax to measure the ball flight/speed, how do you know you’re improving? Well I’d say: HitTrax is just a measurement tool. If you do the same movements, (NOT “HITTING” DRILLS), that we had “Eric” and all of our clients do, then it’s safe to infer that your hitter will improve as well. With the amount of training Baseball Rebellion has done both online and in person, the variable tends to be more the student, and less the program. We KNOW thatThe Rebel’s Rackmakes people turn faster and with more power (also in partner withThe Drive Developer). We KNOW the dowel rod movements we give our in person and Baseball RebellionOnline Hitting Lesson clients make the body move more efficiently through the swing motion. We KNOW that med ball throws translate to more hitting power, better accuracy, and increased barrel acceleration. Our baseball and softball hitters prove it every single day. I know I enjoyed the process of writing this article, and I hope that you enjoy reading it and find the data both enlightening, and encouraging if you’re a part of the Baseball Rebellion. If you’re not, I’d ask you to consider asking your instructor some questions about what the instructor is teaching, why he/she is teaching it, as well as what the instructor measures and how he/she measures it. I hope the answers are good. I hope the answers make sense. Just make sure the plan works and can REALLY improve your hitter. Make sure your money and time is valued and your son or daughter is getting instruction that’s trackable and measurable over time and that scales to the level of play and the goals of your hitter.

Chas Pippitt, Leader of the Baseball Rebellion

P.S. here is what Mike Donfrancesco of HitTrax said of our case study and results after he analyzed it himself:

“The measurements recorded during the second session show a significant improvement in all measured and projected metrics. First off, the average and max exit ball velocities have increased by 7.5 mph and 4.7 mph, respectively. This had a direct result in the maximum distance, which increased from 325 ft in the first session to 381 ft in the second session. The player was also able to increase his HHA from the 16.4% recorded in the first session to a more consistent 67.9% in the second session

The LA vs. exit velo chart generate for the second session also indicates a vast improvement as well. In the first session the player’s line drives (10-20 degrees) were averaging at just about 90 mph while these velocities jumped up to ~97 mph during the second session. Furthermore, the exit velos recorded in the 20-35 degree range increased by 8 to 10 mph. As a result, the SLG% increased from .623 to 1.358 during the second session thus proving that hitting the ball harder at the right launch angles produces positive outcomes.

Chas, what you and your staff did with Eric is VERY impressive in a span of only 3 hours…Quite remarkable and not the norm at all…Nicely done!!”

Hello, Baseball Rebellion My partner and I also run a small instructional center in Massachusetts. We’ve been using HitTrax for over a year and have had the same experience as you. Our players love tracking their improvements and our parents love seeing that their money is being well spent. We tell our players “HitTrax doesn’t lie.” Our players have improved and so have we as instructors. I’m sure the word INTENT is heard often at your place as it is at ours. HitTrax breeds intent. Intent determines mechanics. We sometimes put our beginning players in HR Derby mode with a… Read more »

Any measurement product is only as good as the information the product provides you to ‘fix’ or ‘improve’ the things it measures. At this point, Zepp gives drills that will NOT (in my opinion) improve the metrics that the tool measures. DK gives no feedback (yet) on how to fix any of the swing metrics it measures or identifies as problems. I think this is coming soon for them. I have never used the Motus, and I am not a pitching guy, so I’ll reserve judgement there until further review.

Chas–

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3 years ago

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shawn

Chas As a parent, I really want to love the zepp. The bat pathing stuff really helped my son because he had a very sever a to b downward swing. Seeing the pathing helped alot. He made a pretty significant adjustment quickly. I really like how for each swing you can have video, animation, and stats. Again as a parent, I sometimes wonder if we are using these products as almost a baby sitter. We can see how much junior is practicing. Every Monday, we get a drill to work on our problem spots. Rinse and Repeat. Do you Zepp… Read more »

Any measurement too is only valuable if you can measure something, then take action to fix the flaw or enhance the skill. The best thing I tell anyone to do is find a qualified instructor who can show you movement drills that translate into better measures for your hitter.

Chas–

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3 years ago

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Diamond Kinetics

Shawn & John, Below are some specifics on what makes SwingTracker such a unique and valuable training tool: ————————– SwingTracker is able to capture position and movement in the baseball and softball swings, and provide detailed, accurate metrics for players and coaches like no other baseball and softball, sensor-based system. SwingTracker has many differences that set it apart from other products available: 1) SwingTracker focuses on player development and performance, at all levels – from Youth to Professional, as well as everything in between 2) SwingTracker provides the most comprehensive analysis of the swing, using 15 different measurements/metrics around the… Read more »